Gabbar’s sidekick Mac Mohan’s little girl is back from Melbourne, where her debut film picked up an award. She tells Yolande D’Mello why the simple story about sharing was far from simple to make

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SOMETHING that happened on the night of June 13 at Hoyts Melbourne Central theatre in Australia, is sure to have made a group of young boys in Chinchpokli, a modest neighbourhood of Mumbai, break into a dance. Director Manjari Makijany’s first film, a silent short, won the award for Best Indian Short Film at this year’s Indian Film Festival Melbourne. The eight-minute film was up against 200 entries. The annual event spread across 12 days, recognises talent from across India, New Zealand and Australia. Starring amateur child actors, The Last Marble was shot on a reed-thin budget in two-and-a-half days across the streets of Churchgate and Kandivli in Mumbai. “I wanted to start my career with a simple, short, star-less film,” says the 25-year-old, over the phone from her Melbourne hotel room, squeezing out time between media meets and the after-party. Excerpts from the interview: Why did you ditch dialogues? I hadn’t planned to. It’s the story of the joy of sharing. A nine-year-old street kid who makes objects from metal scrap is our hero. After one of his marble creations is shattered, he is left heartbroken. He rebuilds it, but falls one marble short. The film is about his search for this last piece. When I finished writing the script, I realised I didn’t need dialogue. Why did you start with a short? I wanted to test myself. My director of photography Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi and I had worked as assistant directors on two international projects — Batman: The Dark Knight Rises and Hexxe Lilli — but we wanted to see if we could pull it off on our own. We had a small budget, so we shot at real locations. How did you find Baba and his ‘actor’ friends? I’d roam the streets of Chinchpokli with my camera, chatting with kids. Baba, a 13-yearold, would tag along and introduce me to others in the neighbourhood. We’d conduct impromptu auditions. In the middle of all that, I realised he had a presence. I offered him a role. My little brother Vikrant plays the special child in the film. Omkar Mane, an 11-year-old who was Vikrant’s batchmate at a theatre workshop, plays the protagonist. How tough is it working with kids? There was no time for rehearsal on location. So, we gathered all the street kids at my home for a day to conduct a short performance workshop. The children got along famously, and that’s what made the performance organic. Shooting in uncontrolled conditions is a nightmare. Suddenly we’d have to wait for a herd of goats to cross the road or halt because a bus had entered the frame. Despite the exhaustive rehearsal at home, when Omkar got ready for his first shot, he burst into tears. Thankfully, the other kids arrived, and got him back in the mood. Did being Mac Mohan’s daughter help? Each time we’d go watch a film, we’d get back home and dissect it. When I finished school, dad let my sister Vinati and me help out backstage at the Indian People’s Theatre Association group. We’d handle props, take care of lights, sweep the stage. Theatre makes you family. It’s then I think, that Vinati realised she enjoyed acting. And I was drawn to direction. What was it like growing up in a ‘Bollywood villain’s’ home? I watched Sholay (the film that made his character, Sambha, iconic) only when I was a teenager, and that too in bits. I had Shraddha Kapoor, (villain Shakti Kapoor’s daughter) and Narmada (actor Govinda’s daughter) as schoolmates, so, I thought everyone’s dad came on TV. I think it was on parents’ day at school that I noticed everyone recognising him. That’s when it hit me. The villain on screen was actually a hero at home. Despite drowning in work, he’d always make time for us; turn up on Sports Day. How did he get his name? He was Mohan Makijany, but directors would call him Macs, Maky. Amitabhji (Bachchan) called him Mac, the Mohan. Where does The Last Marble go from here? It premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in May. It was picked up for the Tumbleweed Film Festival that’s scheduled for August in Washington. We’ve got the India premier at the Bangalore Shorts Film Festival on June 24. What next? I’m writing another script. It’s a smart, slick romantic comedy; a commercial film for the janta.

The eight-minute film features amateur child actors like Omkar Mane (above)